Exams

The most talked about step of this process is the exam. It can be a difficult exam and should not be approached lightly. The key to success in the exam is good preparation and that is where we come in. OTSAN has specifically designed mock examinations which run twice a year. You can find more information on these here (LINK TO MEETINGS PAGE)

Access you need

Log in with the College Website With your ID number and password you have access to the college documents, news and the library

The College now offers podcast and videos for their trainees regarding specific topics and modules (click here )

The professional documents are a must read, it is very likely that at least one form of the document comes up in the exam, either in the written part ( usually Short Answer Question ) or as part of a viva in the oral section.

Once you are logged in onto the College Website, follow the link to Resources/Libray/Online Textbooks with some videos of procedures you haven’t done for a while, or not seen before. This is a very important point for us IMGS, if you for example do your awake fiberoptic intubation a certain way, for now let’s say 10 years and everybody else in your country does it the same way, you may still fail in the exam, because it is not common sense in Australia. And there are examiners who won’t acknowledge that there is another world of anesthesia out there, specially not in their exam.

The College library offers access to a variety of online journals/books/downloads

The BJA and there the BJA / CEPD Review articles are a very valuable source for answering the MCQ’s and parts of the SAQ’s

What to read / listen / watch

Books, A list of common books, they all depend on what you like and prefer, no guarantee, that if you read one or all of them gives you better chances to pass:

A good source and also sort of syllabus is the Oxford Handbook of Anesthesia, it is a good task to read it from A - Z at least once before the written and again before the viva. It has all the necessary content, the fine print information and the “right” structure, if you start thinking of a topic or case like the Oxford Handbook does, you are on a safe track for the exam.

Miller’s Anesthesia, always a reliable reference

Stoelting’s Anesthesia & Co Existing Diseases, the new edition comes with a second small “summary” short version, which is a very good excerpt

Yao and Artusio’s Anesthesiology, very good for problem based learning and again gaining some form of a structure in your problem based thinking, or as they say here “Think on your feet “

Gaba & Fish Crisis Management in Anesthesiology, still awaiting an update and also American based but worthwhile for the vivas

Stiff Board Too preparing for the Anesthesia Orals, it’s for the American Board examination and the Australian is definitively much tougher, but it is an easy read when you sick of all the other stuff and may still feel guilty

Listen & Watch There are times when you just don’t want to read anymore:

Dr Podcast, it’s U.K./FRCA based podcast about realtime exam Q & A for the British primary and final exam, very good and detailed information, again a good source to burn some form of a structure into your brain, a top up for the relevant primary stuff if needed and a highly recommendation for all english as a second language IMGS, it’s perfect and cheap Click here to get to Dr Podcast

The American Audio Digest, the latest in Research nicely represented in 30 - 45 min bites including CME points, it’s good but unfortunately not cheap Click here to get to Audio Digest

The Internet, there are countless excellent, good and less useful sites, the commonly used ones are:

Whatever you do, you have to know “blackbank” Australian based and done from candidates for candidates here are all ever asked and remembered MCQs. ( just another click )

I won’t recommend to do or not to do the MCQs, this seems to be pointless, but the process of doing them and looking them up will give you the fundament of the required knowledge, sorry but it’s the painful truth

Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, etc all offer preparation courses, they are all as good as bad, but they give you lots of information in a short period of time

An outstanding different course is the Wellington Prep II Course, because they look also behind the psychology and your performance as an individual ( click here for further information )

The Perioperative Medicine Course is a Melbourne based course for Fellows, but it has exact the source you are expected to know in a format how they love it and you can do it online, if you decide for it, watch out for the talks and handouts, a few topics and specially guidelines or protocols were asked exactly in the last two written papers and viva (http://www.periopmedicine.org.au/)

Similar for the EMAC ( Emergency Management of Anaesthesia Crisis ), overall a course we all should do on a regular base, but it also gives you the drill for the emergency scenario in your viva, you’ll find different dates and locations on the college website

Conclusion

It’s a long way to go and a lot of the success depends on your capability and your social and cultural background. If you come from an english speaking system your chances are generally higher for a first pass. You have to be confident, competent and capable of being an Australian consultant and you have to understand the way the board of Australian examiners think and how a local trainee answers. The latter you can only gain if you spent time with them. E.g. having a study group with locals or spending some time in tertiary centers where the examiners work.